To Give And To Receive
by chaleur
Summary: Some of the best presents are the ones you didn't ask for and didn't really want in the first place.


Day Thr33 - Gravitation  
Yuki x Shuuichi  
=======================================================================  
To Give And To Receive  
by Alexandra Lucas  
kohlcrimson@hotmail.com  
=======================================================================  
In a rare moment of tact, his sister brought his presents over, saying  
that Touma was busy with the arrangements for a Nittle Grasper   
Christmas special for NHK. He eyed them a little dubiously, well-used  
to Touma's presents, and nudged them surreptiously with his foot into  
the corner.  
  
Mika looked at the couch, where the blanket was carelessly rumpled, one  
end trailing to the floor, and declined to sit. They stood a little  
awkwardly in the center of the room, among boxes of Christmas tree  
decorations and the ragged ends of the branches that had broken off  
when Hiro and K had wrestled the Christmas tree through the door and  
into Yuki's previously clean living room. He could feel his blood  
pressure rising and a tic start in the muscle under his eye as he   
remembered Shuuichi breezing in, a flurry of long red scarf, clashing  
pink hair and boxes that clunked omniously. In a combination of horror  
and something approaching fear, the full implications of "We'll   
decorate it together when I get back, 'kay, Yuki?" had not sunk in   
immediately. It was only after the warm brush of lips had faded, along  
with the coldness of Shuuichi's nose on his face and the enthusiastic  
wrap of arms around his neck, after the door had slammed shut behind  
Shuuichi that the threat had registered.  
  
Yuki took a deep drag on his cigarette, held it for a long moment,  
and blew it out in a thin stream of smoke. Mika wrinkled her nose  
delicately at the combination of smoke and the smell of pine in the  
air.  
  
"So," she began in a conversational tone, "what did you get him?"  
  
Christmas, Yuki decided, shouldn't have to be this complicated.  
  
=======================================================================  
  
"We just never had the space for a tree at home, and Kaa-san just   
didn't care enough to get a tree, so I'd go to the shopping malls with  
Hiro and just look. One year, there was this gigantic tree in Seiyu,  
with lights all over the place and balls the size of my hand hanging  
on the branches and it was so /pretty/, Yuki. There were even big   
gift-wrapped boxes with bows under it, and I wanted to get closer, but  
the security guard started looking at us funny and Hiro pulled me   
away, and I decided that the moment we made it, I would get a Christmas  
tree, and decorate it and put presents under it addressed to myself..."  
  
Shuuichi had managed to get himself tangled in the tinsel while running  
his mouth non-stop, and he had shiny fragments of it in his hair,   
making his hair resemble some weird Christmas ornament all on its own.  
Yuki sipped at the hot chocolate (Shuuichi had taken his coffee away,  
insisting that people just did not drink anything other than hot   
chocolate at Christmas) from the cheery mug in his hand that proclaimed  
"Christmas is all about presents... Giving them!" and a demented-  
looking Santa grinned at him, offering a present between the lines of  
black ink.  
  
He had set up the lights himself an hour ago, figuring that struggling  
with the tangled wiring was better than having Shuuichi do it and  
electrocuting himself, forcing Yuki to have to cart him to the   
hospital. So he took a certain sadistic pleasure in watching Shuuichi   
try and get the tinsel that had wrapped itself around his arm   
unknotted, and enjoyed the sight he made, flushed cheeks and excited   
eyes and that thin body with its almost-girlish waist clad in green,   
the sprawl of his legs clearly outlined by the tights.  
  
Privately, he thought that the elf costume wasn't /too/ bad. Maybe.  
Certainly not as bad as the Energizer battery costume. Or the   
schoolgirl uniform.  
  
Shuuichi freed himself from the tinsel and dove into another box, still  
chattering away, his butt wiggling in the air at Yuki.  
  
Not bad at all.  
  
=======================================================================  
  
There were fingers trailing lighting down his chest and some pink  
strands of hair in his mouth. He was sticky too, he realized with some  
distaste, but he just felt too good to make the effort to move. He   
moved his head and heard the crinkle of wrapping paper, the weight of  
Shuuichi's head heavy on his shoulder, and he felt his bones creak  
as he tried to shift into a more comfortable position. They were both  
going to end up with aches and pains tomorrow, at this rate.  
  
"Don't wanna move yet," murmured against his skin, and Shuuichi curled  
more closely to him, the muscles along his leg bunching as he tried to  
crawl inside Yuki's skin. Yuki eyed the vulnerable line of his neck,  
blending into his own where Shuuichi was snuggling him and subsided.  
  
"Yuki?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"If I wasn't here... what would you be doing right now?"  
  
"Sleeping."  
  
"Yuuuki..." A poke in his ribs.  
  
"I would be..." He stalled out for a moment, and stared at the ceiling.  
"Eating dinner with Mika and Touma. They drag me out whether I want to  
or not. They would give me gifts; I'd give them back if I remembered  
to buy them. Come back, get drunk, watch TV until I passed out. Or   
write, if I felt like it."  
  
Shuuichi lifted himself up a little to look him in the face, eyes large  
and incredulous. "You're kidding."  
  
"What the hell for?"  
  
"But that's what you do /every/ day. Except without the dinner and the  
presents."  
  
He considered that. "True."  
  
A harder poke in his ribs. "/Yuki/. Are you telling me that you don't  
do anything really /special/ for Christmas?"  
  
"Yes." He caught his hand before it could poke him to death, and  
flipped them both over and held Shuuichi down with his weight.   
Shuuichi, he saw, wasn't so much angry as distressed. He looked as  
though he was about to cry.  
  
"What about presents? Didn't people come over to your house and give  
you presents for Christmas? Or you wrap stuff up for people other than  
Mika and Touma and give it to them? And not because you feel obligated  
to, Yuki. Or send you silly little cards you put on your shelves?"  
  
"I didn't want any presents. Don't need them."  
  
"Yuki."   
  
Shuuichi's voice cracks a little on that last note, and he hurriedly   
adds before he can really start crying, "I send gifts to my parents,  
sometimes. My publisher gives me chocolates and wine, and I thank  
her and give her a scarf or perfume or the kind of thing women like.  
I got presents. It wasn't as though I was deprived or anything."  
  
Shuuichi glared up at him. "It doesn't sound as though you were happy,  
either."  
  
He put on a straight face and asked, "What would I need to be happy  
for?", and is solidly whacked a moment later.  
  
"Sometimes, Yuki, you're such an idiot. And you talk too much." He  
splutters a little at the sheer unfairness of that remark, while  
Shuuichi adds serenely, "The floor's too hard to sleep on. Carry me  
to bed?"  
  
"Why should I?" Irritation he doesn't have to hide in his voice.  
  
"Because you're the reason I can't walk." Shuuichi twines his arms  
around his neck and kisses him, whispering a 'please' into his mouth.  
  
He sat them both up, what was left of the elf costume sliding to  
the floor, and looked at the wreckage that was his living room. There  
was tinsel everywhere, and pine needles scattered over the floor,  
on top of shiny wrapping paper and ribbon. Various gifts; a long  
overcoat from Touma, a few books he had been meaning to buy anyway  
from Mika, a matching set of cups from Hiro and several from Shuuichi,  
whose idea of the 'giving' part of the Christmas spirit apparently  
existed in the plural sense. It would take him at least an hour to  
clean everything up tomorrow.  
  
"I didn't have to deal with this kind of thing before," he grumbled  
pulling them both to their feet, Shuuichi's legs twining naturally  
around his waist. He made their way to their bedroom, stepping on  
something sharp along the way, and muffled his curses.  
  
"I know. And it's about time, too."  
  
A light slap on his butt. "Cheeky."  
  
======================================================================= 


End file.
